New drop in births in France in 2023: with -8.3% of babies, Occitanie is the second most affected region

En 2022, 1,8 enfant par femme. – JEAN-MICHEL MART

Sur les onze premiers mois de l’année, le nombre de naissances a reculé de 6,8 %, 45 000 bébés de moins qu’en 2022, dit l’Insee. En Occitanie, la chute est vertigineuse : – 8,3 %.

The birth rate continues to decline in France: from January to November 2023, 621,691 births were recorded, which represents 45,000 fewer babies than in 2022 over the same period, – 6, 8% of births, estimates the national statistics institute, INSEE.
The year 2022 was already described as historic, with the number of newborns being the lowest recorded in France since the end of the Second World War, recalls INSEE.

If all regions are affected, "without exception", notes INSEE, Occitanie shows a dizzying fall in 2023: – 8.3%, barely better than Normandy (- 8.4 %), the most impacted.

The youngest on the front line

If "a new, more precise estimate must be published at the end of January 2024, it should not call into question the observed developments", estimates INSEE.< /p>

Political instability, fear of tomorrow, ecology, changing lifestyles and priorities… the trend has already been the subject of explanations which will need to be confirmed once again.

In an analysis of the situation for the year 2022, which totaled 726,000 births, INSEE reported a drop of -21% compared to 1971, ;rsquo;year when a peak in births was recorded.

Only the oldest women (40 years or over) continued to have more babies (+ 3 %) while those aged 25 – 29 years old already had fewer children (- 3%), as did 30-34 year olds (- 4%). However, it is in these age groups that women are the most fertile.

The average age of mothers at the birth of their child should not change much: last year it was 31.2 years (29.8 years in 2008). The fertility indicator (number of children per woman) is expected to continue its decline in 2023. In 2022, it was 1.80, compared to 1.84 in 2021.